Trapped in Bat Wing Hall

by RL Stine

  But at that moment, Marcie announces, “It’s decided. You can stay and play games with us.”

  “Great!” you say, ignoring Debbie. “What are we playing?”

  Learn about the games on PAGE 66.

  CLANG! The werewolf crashes head-on into the side of the cage. He howls in frustration. His fangs snap at you.

  You back up a step. You bite your lip as you stare at the hairy beast.

  Familiar laughter fills the room as Nick, Debbie, and Connor slide down the basement’s staircase bannister.

  “What’s the matter?” Nick taunts you. “Not having fun?”

  “Only four minutes left,” Connor reminds you, pointing at his small watch. “If you don’t get three hairs from the werewolf by then, you’ll turn into one of us!”

  “But that’s not so bad, is it?” Debbie says. “I mean, don’t you think I’m beautiful?” She plucks a tarantula from her hair and wiggles it at you. You gaze at her hideous face and shudder. You’ll do anything to avoid turning into a monster like her!

  Cautiously, you step up to the cage. You stick your hand between the iron bars. Slowly, slowly, you reach for the werewolf.

  “WRROOWL!” The beast’s jaws snap at your fingers, barely missing them. You pull your hand back, trembling.

  “There’s only one way to get the hairs,” Nick says. “You’ll have to go into the werewolf’s cage.”

  Go to PAGE 127.

  You’ve decided to make your friends move the club. You need to come up with some place better to meet than Bat Wing Hall. Then an idea comes to you. You know they won’t be able to resist a challenge.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” you tell them, entering the living room. “I was at the graveyard. I found a way cool place for us to meet. But it might be too scary for you guys.”

  “No way!” Martin protests.

  “Are you sure?” you ask them. “Maybe we should wait and ask the other members?”

  “Who needs them?” Martin declares. “Let’s go for it!”

  “Yeah,” Marcie chimes in. “Let’s check it out now. If it’s spooky enough, it’ll be the club’s new home.”

  Great! That was easier than you thought. You lead your friends to the cemetery. The old gravestones poke out of the ground at odd angles. They’re broken and covered with moss, and all their writing has crumbled away.

  “Cool!” Marcie crows. “You were right. This is much scarier than Bat Wing Hall. Let’s make this —” She stops suddenly and stares at the ground in horror.

  You wonder what grabbed her attention. Then you see it! Breaking through the surface of the ground is a bony hand!

  Turn to PAGE 63.

  You slide open the door and lift yourself up into a moonlit room with a slanted ceiling. Old furniture and trunks of clothes are strewn everywhere.

  Crouching, you make your way over to a little window. You peer out. And sigh. You are three stories up. You must be in the attic, you realize. There’s no way you can jump out of the window. You’ll never make it to the ground alive.

  You shuffle back across the floor, trying to think of a plan. As you poke around in the junk, you spot a tall, clear box at the far end of the attic. There appears to be something black in it. And leaning against it is a broom.

  Could that be the witch’s broom — the one on the scavenger hunt list? You hurry over to investigate.

  “Help me!” a shrill voice cries as you reach for the broom.

  The voice is coming from the box! There’s a woman trapped inside!

  Her face is lined with deep wrinkles. Her long, knotted gray hair flows over a black dress.

  “Wow!” You gasp.

  The woman stares at you. Her green eyes seem to pierce through your flesh. “At last!” she wails. “I’ve been waiting two hundred years for you!”

  Turn to PAGE 107.

  “Leave me alone, kid!” you squeak. You crawl out of the drawer and swoop over to the letters. You’ve decided to spell out your name. That way Marcie will know the bat is really you.

  You start searching through the pile of letters. You hear Darryl moving toward you. You search faster. Darryl’s toddling closer. But he’s so excited that he falls down. You’ve found the first letter of your first name. Quickly, you search for the other letters.

  You’ve just finished finding all the letters in your name when Darryl reaches you. You look up to see him towering over you. He’s about to lose his balance again. He reaches for a cabinet to steady himself.

  “Be careful!” you squeak. “You’re going to pull that —”

  CRASH!

  Whoops! Darryl pulled the cabinet over. Unfortunately, it was very heavy. Even more unfortunately, you were directly underneath it.

  Too bad. Now you won’t even get to be on TV — unless they come up with a show called Flat Pet Tricks.

  THE END

  The next morning you wake up as a kid again. You’re pretty sure you can avoid being toasted if you stay out of the sun as much as possible and really cover up. To be safe, you wear your hat, sunglasses, muffler, and gloves.

  “Why are you dressed like that?” Marcie asks when you meet your friends at the mall. She and the others laugh.

  “Maybe we were wrong about you,” Martin teases. “Maybe you’re too weird for the Horror Club.”

  “Why are you wearing all those clothes?” Marcie asks again.

  You’d better rethink this. You’d hate to lose the only friends you have. “My mom,” you say, rolling your eyes. “I’m getting a cold and this is what she did to me.”

  “My mom’s the same way,” Lara agrees sympathetically.

  You’ll have to wait for a better time to tell them the truth. “So what’s the plan?” you ask.

  “Let’s check out the new science store,” Lara suggests.

  “I’d rather go to the movies,” Martin says. “Dracula is about to start.”

  “Let’s let the newest member of the Horror Club decide,” Marcie says, turning to you.

  It’s up to you now. If you choose to check out the science store, turn to PAGE 73.

  If you’d rather see Dracula, go to PAGE 108.

  You’ve decided to wait for the monster’s help.

  “How do you like our library?” the blue head asks.

  “It’s very nice,” you say. “Those are cool-looking monster books. But I really need to go back home.”

  “All in good time,” the red head rumbles. “Can you read?”

  “Well, of course I can,” you answer. You wonder if the monster is going to write down directions for you.

  “Great!” the red head cries. “We love being read to. Our librarian was a good reader, until she became a Swamp Beast snack. After you read our favorite stories to us, we’ll show you how to go home.”

  “If you won’t,” the blue head adds, leering at you with its enormous yellow eye, “we’ll eat you. Are you ready?”

  You don’t have much choice. But how hard could it be to read a couple of stories? The monster leads you into the next room.

  “Which story should I read?” you ask.

  “All of them,” insists the blue head. The monster points to the shelves. You can see that they contain thousands of books. “The rest are in the basement,” the red head adds.

  Too bad — it looks as if you’re going to be busy for a while. If you ever want to get home, you better learn to speed-read!

  THE END

  You have to break your fall! You reach out your arms and drag your fingers along the wall of the crevice. It slows you down a bit. Then the light begins to change, and you don’t have to fight so hard to slow your descent. By the time you reach the bottom, you’re almost floating. You land gently on a bed of moss.

  You scan your new surroundings. You seem to be in a swamp. A swamp full of strange, twisted trees, and flitting insects. A smell of decay overwhelms you and mournful cries fill the air. You’re overcome by a feeling of dread.

  You want to get out of this creepy place —
quick!

  You run along a river bank, hoping it will lead somewhere. But before you have gone far, you come to a broken sign pointing in two directions. One part of the sign points across the river: TO THE CRYPT. The other part points to the path, but it is so old and weathered that it has no words left on it at all. Which way should you go?

  Follow the path on PAGE 87.

  Cross the river on PAGE 59.

  “Please,” you beg. “It’s important. We’ve got to stop meeting in the mansion.”

  “No way,” Martin says. “If you don’t like it here, go form your own club.”

  “But —” you start to protest. But at that moment Professor Krupnik’s ghostly voice fills the room. “YOU FAILED!” it moans. “NOW I MUST TAKE MATTERS INTO MY OWN HANDS!”

  The room suddenly fills with smoke and bright flashes of light. Your friends start to scream.

  “Wait —” you cry. But your voice comes out as a high-pitched squeak. In horror, you realize it’s too late. You’ve turned back into a bat. You glance around to see three other bats flying around the living room in panic.

  “Help!” Lara squeaks in her bat voice. “What’s happened?”

  “We’ve all been turned into bats,” you say sadly.

  Too bad! You made the wrong choice. But at least you’ll have someone to hang around with.

  THE END

  Your bat’s stomach insists moths are delicious. Following the sonar, you swoop into the tree and grab the insect in your jaws. Its body feels soft and powdery, and the bitter flavor makes you want to hurl. But you’re starving. Gagging, you swallow. Then you zoom after another moth.

  When you’ve finished your mothy meal, you fly straight for the graveyard and the Krupnik Crypt, landing on the top of the open door.

  The door is bigger than you remembered. But then, you’re a lot smaller. You drop to the ground and try pushing against it. It doesn’t move. Even an inch. You fly into it, but all that happens is you bruise your wings.

  What will you do? As a bat, you’re too weak to close the door. When you’re a human, you can’t leave the house. Then you think of your Horror Club team. Maybe you can get them to help you.

  But who should you ask first? Martin’s the strongest, Lara’s the friendliest, but Marcie seems the bravest.

  Quick — decide who to visit and fly to their house!

  Visit Martin on PAGE 36.

  Or Lara on PAGE 118.

  Or Marcie on PAGE 5.

  BEWARE!!

  DO NOT READ THIS

  BOOK FROM

  BEGINNING TO END!

  Bummer! You have to take your bratty little sister, Joanie, with you to the mall. Before you and your friend Sid can stop her, Joanie runs into a magic shop. Of course, she touches everything in the store. But when Joanie leaves the shop carrying a big book of magic spells, you know you’re headed for trouble. Big trouble!

  The book of spells belongs to an evil magician. And he’s going to use every terrifying magic trick — sawing you in half, throwing knives at you, even setting hundreds of rabbits loose — to get his book back! Time is running out. The magician has put a powerful spell on Joanie — her body is slowly evaporating. And you’re next!

  Can you destroy the magician before he waves his wand and makes you disappear into thin air?

  You’re in control of this scary adventure. You decide what will happen. And how terrifying the scares will be!

  Start on PAGE 1. Then follow the instructions at the bottom of each page. You make the choices.

  SO TAKE A DEEP BREATH. CROSS YOUR FINGERS. AND TURN TO PAGE 1 NOW TO GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS!

  You flatten yourself against the wall. You listen hard for a noise — any noise. Will you be able to make your escape?

  The only sound you hear is your own raspy breathing. You slowly peer around the corner. All clear. “It’s now or never,” you murmur.

  You take a deep breath and sprint toward freedom.

  Bang! The door slams behind you as you fling yourself onto the lawn.

  “Made it!” you cheer. But you know there’s no time to celebrate. You glance around. So far so good. You race around the side of the house.

  And come to a dead stop.

  Turn to PAGE 2.

  There they are. Standing right by your bicycle.

  Your mother and your little sister, Joanie.

  “Hi, sweetie,” your mother greets you. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

  Your stomach sinks to your toes. You were so close. So close to escape. Now you know what’s coming.

  “I’m meeting Sid at the mall,” you mumble to your mom.

  “That sounds like fun, dear. I’m sure Joanie would like to go, too.”

  “Maaaa!” you wail. “Joanie is such a pain! She gets into everything. I have to watch her every second!”

  “Joanie will behave, won’t you, cutie?” Your mother turns to Joanie and kisses her cheek.

  Joanie nods sweetly. She gives you a big fake smile.

  Good-bye fun, you think.

  Your bratty nine-year-old sister always gets you into trouble. She has to touch everything she sees. “Break it or take it” seems to be Joanie’s motto. But she’s so disgustingly cute, no one ever seems to get mad at her. Grown-ups love her brown curls and bright blue eyes.

  “Look, Joanie wants to hold your hand,” your mother gushes. “Isn’t that cute?”

  Before you puke, turn to PAGE 3.

  You shake off Joanie’s hand. Once your mother is out of sight, you know Joanie will drop her cutie-pie routine.

  “Listen up, Joanie,” you tell her. “I’m in charge. So hurry up and grab your bike. I’m already late.”

  “I have to get my diary first,” Joanie says.

  That stupid diary. Joanie never goes anywhere without it.

  “You two have fun,” your mother tells you. Then she follows Joanie into the house.

  “Joanie,” you holler. “I’m leaving. NOW!” You jump on your bike and pedal as fast as you can. Hopefully none of your friends will spot you riding to the mall with your little sister. You glance back and see that Joanie is pedaling hard to keep up with you.

  When you reach the mall, you and Joanie lock your bikes in the rack. “Don’t wander off,” you instruct Joanie.

  “Who, me?” she asks super-sweetly.

  Hurry to PAGE 18.

  R.L. Stine’s books are read all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written the teen series Fear Street and the funny series Rotten School, as well as the Mostly Ghostly series, The Nightmare Room series, and the two-book thriller Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and Minnie, his King Charles spaniel. You can learn more about him at www.RLStine.com.

  Goosebumps book series created by Parachute Press, Inc.

  Copyright © 1995 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, GOOSEBUMPS, GOOSEBUMPS HORRORLAND, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, li
ving or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, December 1995

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-84102-3